Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Butters wrote:Does acetone react with styrene? I need to remove some metal that's been super glue to styrene.

Yup - big time. In fact it's what I used to use to dissolve excess sprue to make a gooey filler. Furthermore, the pplastic is permanently soft after it is attacked by acetone.

You need a part called "Adaptor, Badger-Paasche hose". I think both Badger and Paasche make a version. I believe that the Paasche part number is PA-A-151.

An example from the UK ishere but you should be able to find a US supplier easily enough.

rocketrider wrote:The Epoxy just peeled right of leaving no trace whatsoever.

Which would point to a PVC rather than straight vinyl.

BTW - slow-curing epoxies stick much better than 5-minute or other fast-setting epoxies.

Woe, oh woe!! And it came to pass that the only purveyor in the UK of the blessed AVES has ceased to sell it. And lo! The angels and modellers wept! The bay of evil did offer unto us a glimmer of hope, but verily were the prices loathsome. “Import it thyself!”, sayeth the American brethren, but alas...

You mean that grille material isn't photoetch?! :shock: I need to get me some. You think a dress shop would have scrap Vylene in the back room they'd let me have? It's Vilene (Vylene is a type of plastic) and this trick is a very old military modeller one. Look for "Wondaweb" in the haber...

tonyG2 wrote:Would a coat of Tamiya metallic blue with a top coat of smoke give the approximate effect?

It might do, but I think the metallic blue paint wouldn't look quite as metallic as the clear blue on foil.

Get plasticard. If it isn't already scribed with the pattern of cells you want, scrib it now. This is the worst bit. Get the really shiny BareMetal foil an apply to the plasticard. Rub down gently with a very soft cloth, making sure it gets into the scribe lines. Airbrush 2 light coats of Tamiya Cle...

Isn't the vowel "A" after the consonant "C", cause the vowel "E" to have a long sound? Following the rules of proper English of course...but there are always exceptions to a rule...especially in the English language. TazMan2000 Not quite... It sort of depends on the wo...

tonyG2 wrote:From the UK and I say Deck-ull....

Then again, I was born in Canada

Me too (both pronunciation and being born in Canada). However, a lot of brits call them 'transfers' thus getting around the pronunciation issue.

I don't do a heck of a lot of spraying, but when I do, I always use a disposable face mask. It's not as good as a respirator but it's better than nothing.

I know you guys across the pond can't get it, but Halford's White and Grey acrylic primers are excellent if you're in the UK. Because they are intended for cars, they are very fine grained, cover well and come in large cans. They are also much, much cheaper than anything intended for modellers. They...

Whatever floats your boat - just don't try mixing them together :) There are advantages and disadvantages to both... Enamels: On the plus side they can give excellent gloss and metallic finishes and you can often get away with fewer coats. On the negative they smell more, are definitely more toxic a...

Acrylic varnish usually works fine with decals. Very, very occasionally you might find a decal that reacts badly, but in my experience it is very rare. You do need to make sure that the decals are completely dry before coating with acrylic - leave them a day or two after applying to be sure. In my e...

I understand that Iwata bought a load of Future before the formula was changed.

In addition to CA vapor, dullcote and sandpaper, PlastKoyte do a frosted spray - I've not tried it yet but I have something in mind.

^ what they say, but I also found that the acetone attchs the seals in my Badger 150 pretty quick. They're only pennies to replace, but it means a complete strip-down.

Presuming that you're in the UK, Humbrol ClearFix may be your best bet or, if you can get it, Johnsons Klear (Americans call it Future) This has been discontinued in the UK, but ASDA regularly stock it still. Aplply with a wooden cocktail stick. ClearFix is fairly viscous, whereas Klear is a bit run...

[quote="ajmadison" Though the attached modeling article, written in French![/quote] Not surprising as it's a French company. Incidentally, the Bing translation is rather quaint. ...tells me the resolution is in the millimeter range, which isn't quite there for the scratch builds I do. 0.1m...

Milliput Superfine White is every bit as fine as AVES, but it is a lotmore difficult to mix properly and it has a much, much shorter shelf life unmixed.

Floquil, Testors and Poly Scale (railroad) do Reefer White in acrylic.

Experiment. I'd lay down a couple of coats of the Tamiya colour on a scrap, let that cure for a couple of days and then try the Testor's.

Help! I hope someone can aswer this quick as I need to get this project finished and I'm hitting the craft store tomorrow. Can you guys recomend a good dullcoat over Acrylic? I hit my latest project with Testors from a spray can and it actually turned it glossy! Even pastels can't seem to knock dow...

The Tamiya gloss spray is, as far as I know, an acrylic varnish which should be OK for decals. However, if the decals were still somewhat damp and had not dried thouroughly, any varnish can shrivel them up. Tamiya also do a rather 'hotter' varnish intened for use with polycarbonate car bodies - this...

So the apple barrel paint just needs to be thinned with water and a dop of dish soap right? If you are going that route I would use acohol instead of soap. Sometimes using soap as a surfactent can cause bubbling when you apply the wash, just like soap bubbles in the sink. you might also look at thi...

The more coats you get on the tape the more likely you'll peel off some when you lift the tape. If you lightly score the paint with a sharp knife along the edge of the tape before you lift you can more or less do as many coats as you like. The other thing to watch is the length of time masking stays...

I have a decal question, I was gifted 5 models from a friend that said he would never get around to building them. When i recieved the package I was very surprised at what was inside, 3 of the models are vintage space models from 1969, the 1/96 apollo 11 columbia & eagle complete with the iron ...

I like the Touch'n'flow applicator.

http://www.flex-i-file.com/html/adhesives.html

I built a Spacemam Marine figure (from Space Above & Beyond). The head was solid so I needed to get the visor to look real (sorry no pics, so don't bleat!). This is what I did... Painted the whole visor gloss white. Then sprayed a central patch of midnight blue with some black added to it - I le...

Coincidentally, after some detective work, :holmes: ,I've managed to get some Klear from our local B&Q this afternoon. However, its not actually called Johnson's Klear anymore. Johnsons discontinued it in the UK back in 2008, but what I have managed to get is Pledge Multi Surface Wax (there's n...

Great though Liquitex is, it is not widely available in the UK. Some really good art shops stock it (or some of it) by Windsor & Newton and Daler Rowney have the lion's share of the market here.